Wedding planner services in New Zealand

Introduction:

This report is prepared by Sudhanshu Gupta as Managing Director of "Cherish Weddings'" for the branch manager of ANZ Bank with the purpose of seeking loan to initiate the wedding planner business in Auckland. Cherish Weddings' is a wedding planning company based in Auckland, the multi-ethnic city of New Zealand, which presents a superfluity of ultimate wedding destinations. Auckland is also well-known as 'City of 100 lovers' in Maori language as 'Tamaki Makau Rau'. Cherish Weddings' is assisting the couples of New Zealand in planning the wedding of their dreams. It also assists the couples from around the globe who dream and plan their wedding and honeymoon in New Zealand.

Weddings are always special and Cherish Weddings' presents an array of wedding services that are appropriate for each occasion. We have expertise in organizing either a ceremonial and traditional Church wedding or a dreamy ceremonial on the golden sands of a secluded New Zealand beach. Cherish Weddings' is dedicated to plan the whole wedding as hassle and stress free and most essentially, with lots of joy and fun. We are committed to take care of each and every small need of the couples and their families, creating the wedding of their dreams and making them totally undisturbed to take pleasure in each magical moment of the wedding.

New Zealand is an ideal wedding destination and hence, Cherish Weddings' is liasioning with wedding and tourism industry of Auckland as well as other key cities to make sure that New Zealand will beyond doubt become the never-to-be-forgotten wedding place for many young couples.

"So take advantage of the expertise of Cherish Weddings' to organize the most important day of your life in one of the most beautiful wedding destination on Earth - New Zealand."

This report is structured in 4 main parts which highlights the Vision, Mission and Goals of Cherish Weddings', followed by an in-depth macro scan of the environment affecting the event management industry and the wedding planner in specific. Further, the report focuses on the micro scan analysis of the wedding planning industry by using the PORTER five forces model and concluding by emphasizing on the key success factors for the Cherish Weddings', which it has to get right to be successful and competitive in the industry.

Strategic Foundations:

Vision:

By 2016, Cherish Weddings' is the pacesetter in wedding industry of New Zealand by exceeding customer expectations through innovation and creativity. As wedding planner, Cherish Weddings' has the expertise in designing the dream weddings into reality with an unforgettable experience that could be relish for lifetime. Cherish Weddings' is the best industry resource for wedding professionals and having the right number of clients to maximize opportunities for their success.

Mission

"Marriages are made in Heaven, and on earth, made heavenly by us, by providing utmost customer delight through teamwork and creativity".

Cherish Weddings' being a result-oriented organization, we always believes in utmost customer delight. We always consider building long-term relationships with all our clients by giving them committed service through value creation and reliability. We are a small team of well-trained, determined and rewarded group of wedding professionals that are capable to provide cost-effective services at any stage.

Core Values:

We are ethical and persistent and our aim is to demonstrate uniformity, candour, integrity, innovation and to offer expert, incomparable services to our clients and their guests.

Cherish Weddings' design the marriages of the clients are per their needs and budget and present an end result, which is beyond their expectations.

Goals - "We live in an age when people want experience"

Our goals is to give our client's a memorable lifetime experience for their most important event of life by saving time of the couples and their families, helping those who dont have much experience in organizing weddings, saving their money with effective planning, and to let the couple enjoy their day, and spend time with their guests, rather than bothering about the flowers or the food.

Our motto is "Your day, our formation". It is your wedding, which is planned in an innovative and creative manner as per your desired budget and valuable suggestions.

Cherish Weddings' will personalize your wedding so you can have a lifetime of wonderful memories. We are dedicated to making your special day one to remember for a lifetime.

Macro Scan:

PESTLE Analysis - PESTEL analysis is used to investigate the vital factors, which affects an industry and the influence they have on a particular company or companies operating in that particular industry.

Political & Legal: Political factors involve the government procedures, associated with the business industries, which includes rules, convention, laws, tax, tariffs, restrictions etc. Every business has to deal with political interventions which are practised by the government. On the other hand, legal factors involve the rules of law within which the business operates. Every business has to follow the legal rules of the country it exists in order to keep away from any disagreement which ultimately results in success of the organization. Both political and legal factors must be studied in detail before initiating the business.

For all the couples who are living in other countries and looking New Zealand as their dream wedding destination, it is very important that political structure of New Zealand should be stable in order to attract more and more couples to the country.

New Zealand law and the Government policies states that in a marriage both the parties should agree to where the marriage would take place and along with that the proper consent of both the parties are required to agree for the place. Also they have to register themselves with the marriage registrar in order to make the marriage legal under the Marriage Registration Act of 1995. (INTEXT). This law gives the company an edge for the business, as most of the people choose a certain place or their own place to get married and usually they want to make it a special occasion by inviting people who will also be subject to as evidence that the marriage has taken place.

This law gives the company the provision to approach people where the dates are registered with the marriage registrar and hence the company can approach either parties for managing the wedding function.

New Zealand government also made the flexibility of making the country as a destination for couples who want to get married here. (INTEXT). This gives the company a broad arena to advertise the specified services to all the people around the globe who wants to get married in New Zealand.

http://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1955/0092/latest/DLM292097.html

Economic - Economical factors involves with financial forces that exists in a country. "The economic factors include the wider economic performance for example economic growth, exchange rates, interest rates and inflation".

It is not a compulsion to have a wedding planner for coordinating a marriage. There are various people round the world who get married even without doing any consultation with any wedding planner. Last year, many parts of world faced with recession and with the problem of inflation. People have lost job and money. And in such situations, it is a hard time for the wedding planners to attract clients for managing their weddings. As a result, we would focus our services to provide more and more convenience and flexibility to our clients for each and every aspect of their marriage, which would make our requirement as irresistible to potential brides and grooms.

http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/41348-2

Social: Social factors has are also important for every businesses to be considered before preparing the marketing plan which are related to the society facets. "Forces within the society such as religion, family, social structure and education, health, population growth, demographics, changes in consumer behaviours and other aspects may influence positively or negatively".

Wedding industry is bound to have social influences as marriage in itself is one of the most auspicious social occasions for every couple. Hence, they would always seek ideas and suggestions from their families, friends, and relatives to enhance the design of the wedding celebration. Further, especially brides also look for bridal magazines, bridal TV shows, reading the wedding suggestions website online, etc, which highlights the impact on the business of wedding planners. This suggests that consumer's behaviour is ever-changing for the wedding planners and they have to plan their marketing strategies considering the probability of such social influences on the potential consumers.

Technological - In today's scenario, advent of new technology is critical for the success of any business. Because the world is moving towards globalization, there is increase in the use of internet and e-commerce in each and every aspect of business. Customers demands are changing over time and every business seek to meet their demand by adopting the latest technology available in the market.

Technological advancements had made life easy for many of the working professionals not only in the service industry, but many other businesses as well. With the introduction to internet and various software's, operational planning has become a quite easy task for the wedding planners. Cherish Weddings' is using the latest software available in the market to design its operational plan and provide customer's exactly what they require within the given time frame and as per their budget. There are many internet savvy customers round the world who would be using our website in order to access various information like our background and the services we offer, our associations, testimonials, contact information etc. A sample is given below. Upgrading with the latest technology helps us to serve and stay in touch with our clients in an effective manner.

Environmental:

New Zealand is one of such countries in the world, which provides special and unique location to celebrate the most important occasion of life - marriage. Whether a tradition church wedding, or a ceremonial wedding at the top of mountain or on a beach or garden, New Zealand is beautiful in every single aspect. It has one of the most attractive landscapes in the world which would provide unforgettable experience for the special day.

Along with other parameters, the season and the environment also motivate couples and influence the business of wedding planners. Couples may want to be married on a season when their preferred flowers are in full bloom in order to avoid further expenses that may arise from unavailability of flowers, especially if couples' preferred flowers for the wedding are seasonal.

Promoting Eco-Wedding: Weddings in New Zealand do not have the best reputation when it comes to being eco friendly and so we would make a few suggestions to our potential clients as to how they can do your bit for the environment by making their wedding a little bit more eco friendly. If every couple includes one or two eco friendly options into their wedding, it will go a long way towards helping out the environment. Under the banner "eco friendly" we are including being carbon neutral, re-using, recycling, organic, supporting New Zealand businesses and using sustainable products. Few examples choosing a venue that has a good recycling program and that sources local suppliers, choosing local and or organic wines and beers, hiring a bus to transport your guests to the wedding - this can be a great idea if your venue is out of town, and telling your guests about the eco friendly initiatives you have included in your wedding to raise more awareness, etc

Micro Scan:

Porter Five Forces:

Bargaining Power of Customers:

As the song says, "love makes the world go round," which means there should be plenty of people who will need our services, right? In theory, YES. But we'll be much more successful if we study the demographics of the area we wish to do business in, and then tailor our services to a specific group within that market. http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/41348-2

For Cherish Weddings', customers are the wedding couples or their families, who may not have an experience in organizing weddings or who are looking for an unforgettable experience for the most important day of their life. The New Zealand wedding industry has suffered a downturn in early 2009 due to recession hitting the markets and many of the couples deciding to spend less on their weddings. (AUT Journal). Today as the economy is growing faster, people are becoming more focused. Also, people don't find any time from their busy job schedules to arrange or plan wedding of their loved ones. Therefore our target consumers are mostly people who are running in their busy schedules and couldn't be able to find time to plan a perfect wedding.

Customer's for Cherish Weddings' varies as per their financial status and their willing to spend on their special day - the wedding. As per their budget, their demands would vary and there would be many aspects in which they won't be looking for any compromise like wedding dress, jewellery and photography/videography etc, but on other hand, they may explore for some cheaper options for other facilities like flowers, cake, invitation cards etc. Cherish Weddings' is a tailored service as per the financial requirements and budget of the customers. For some clients, it is simply a matter of guiding them through the planning process, keeping them on track and being there on the day to ensure everything goes to plan. For other clients it is a start to finish process, where we manage every aspect of the wedding planning and the day itself (all with the bride and grooms input).

Competitive Rivalry within industry:

There is one thing in business which we cannot neglect or remove is the competition. Competition is certain in any industry and it very much strongly exists in the wedding planning business as well in Auckland. The wedding planning industry is much unorganized in its nature. There are various players in the Auckland city itself. Major and famous of them include the Wedding coach, New Zealand Wedding Planners, Exquisite Weddings, Best 4 Less, Wonderful Weddings, and The Perfect Wedding, etc. Most of them are well-established in the Auckland city and are quite famous. Cherish Weddings' would have direct competition with all of them and majorly with the Wedding Coach, as their range of services is more or less same like that of Cherish Weddings. The strength and weakness of competitors in wedding industry is mentioned below:

Strengths: Have been in the market longer, have an established reputation and client base.

Weakness: No systems-based businesses designed to produce consistent results, do not have the supporting products to market with, or instead of, wedding planning services.

Key Players Vs Cherish Weddings':

Name

Product/Service description

Location

Aggressiveness

Threat Level

The Wedding Coach

Wedding event management

Parnell, Auckland

High

High

Special Occasions

Weddings, Corporate events, Parties - Kids and Teenagers

Auckland

Medium

Low

Lavish Events

Weddings, Private Functions, Corporate Events

Auckland

Medium

Medium

The important criteria which would distinguish us with other wedding planners are the creative management and professionals as well as liasioning with the marriage and tourism industry, to provide our client's the best wedding experience within their budget. Moreover, going forward, we would be taking care of our client other family events like anniversaries, funerals, special birthdays, bachelor parties, etc, thus, becoming a core part of their life.

Threat of Substitutes:

Occasions are in a unique position of competition. Cherish Weddings' is competing against hotels with banquet facilities, persons within an organization who are assigned the task of organizing an event, and people who wish to organize their own events without the benefit of assistance as substitutes. The benefits and drawbacks of each of our substitutes, as compared with the services we offer, are hardly a match in quality and price.

Hotels and Other Banquet Halls:

Strengths: On-site facilities, equipment, and support staff. Ability to transport and house persons for overnight stays. Able to internalize costs of transportation and equipment

Weakness: Often very expensive, impersonal, rely on unskilled labour for support staff. The error rate is high due to high volume and traffic from other events happening at the same time.

Employees or Persons Wishing To Do It Themselves:

Strengths: Internalized cost of planning the event; able to add tiny personalized touches that have meaning within the group or family.

Weakness: Consumes time that could be spent on other things; may not have access to the best prices, services, and other needed resources available.

Threat of new entrants:

The potential for new players is huge provided they render qualitative services. Entering in the business as wedding planners doesn't require much capital. It rather requires creativity and a good team who has the capability and power to liaison with various people associated with the industry.

Bargaining Power of Suppliers:

Suppliers are one of the most important parts of wedding planning business. Cherish Weddings' has make sure that it has a variety of suppliers for each and every service, who could provide the products and services as per the budget of the customers.

SWOT Analysis:

Strength

Strong potential of customer base

Less Investments

Huge Profit Margin

Excellent communication system

Proper and systematic advertisement

Good social contacts

Weakness

Seasonal demand

Less Experience in the business

Largely unorganized market

Opportunities

Change in social environment

Improving economy and business

Threats

Increasing competition

Increasing influence of regional, local players and substitutes in the industry

KEYS to SUCCESS:

Our success will depend on the commitment to quality by every person who is part of our team. Other factors that can push our business to success include:

Able to fulfil client's dream and demand. As a service oriented business, our business will survive only if we are able to consistently meet our client's demands and expectations. To be able to deliver a sterling performance, we must first have the right skills expected of a planner. Our business will die if we lack sufficient knowledge and understanding of our business. We must also have the commitment and dedication to see a project through from start to finish.

Control our costs. Controlling the spiralling costs of arranging marriages is critical to the success of our business. Lower costs could be healthier for our bottom line, as customers often want to see value for their money.

Competitive pricing for the quality of services offered. Our price should reflect the value of our services. But we have to careful though in setting our price too high or too low. A low price may undermine the quality of service we present as we may not be able to afford the best vendors and suppliers. We may also not have enough time for the project as we will tend to get more projects to compensate for the low income. If we overcharge, however, our clients may feel that they are being treated unfairly.

Significant profit made on each event planned. A business needs to be financially sound to survive. Hence, it is important that every project we take on must yield healthy profits for us (unless of course the project is a volunteer work designed to create buzz for our business).

Extensive database of contacts, vendors and suppliers. We need to have - right at our fingertips - a list of dependable and trusted suppliers that we can rely on for our entire event's needs including food, flowers, and others. We should have good contacts with the hotel and travel industry to help our client's get great rates for the lodging and travel needs..

Able to work as a team. Our business is rarely a one-person operation. Hence, we may need to work well and lead our team members or employees in the efficient conduct of every task needed.

System for tracking events. The success of a planner lies in the ability to be on top of all the arrangements. Hence, we need to have a system that works for us to keep us abreast of all aspects of the event. Such a system can be as simple as a large calendar, filofax, post-it notes, or as sophisticated as a project management tracking software. We must also use the right communications tools to coordinate with various team members and help ensure that we remain on top of every aspect of the event.